🇺🇸 United States·Retirement-account balances by age·Federal Reserve SCF 2022
Are you on track for retirement in the United States?
Enter your age and total retirement balance. See how you compare to the typical saver your age.
I'm with $ in retirement accounts.
vs. the typical saver aged 35–44
Well ahead
2.2× the median
Typical balance at 35–44: $45,000
Comfortably above the typical saver your age.
This compares you to families your age who hold a retirement account. Only 61.5% of households aged 35–44 have one at all, so the median ($45,000) reflects savers, not everyone.
The savings lifecycle
Retirement balances climb until the mid-60s.
Each point is the balance held by the typical saver in an age bracket (solid cyan median, dashed violet mean), counting only families who hold a retirement account. Your balance is plotted at your age. The curve turns down after the mid-60s as households begin to draw down.
Median saver (conditional) Mean saver You
Median and mean balances are conditional on holding a retirement account. Federal Reserve SCF 2022 interactive tables. Within-bracket percentiles are not published.
The number behind the number
Most of the comparison is to people who saved at all.
The medians on this page are conditional: they only count families who hold a retirement account. That matters, because in every age bracket a large share hold nothing in a dedicated retirement account. Here is the share that does.
Under 35
35–44you
45–54
55–64
65–74
75 and over
Share of families in each age bracket holding any retirement account (IRA, 401(k), Keogh, or equivalent). Federal Reserve SCF 2022.
Three numbers worth the asterisk
What "on track" really means.
The participation gap
Only 49.6% of households under 35 hold any retirement account.
Participation peaks at 62.2% in the 45–54 bracket, then falls. The single biggest predictor of retirement security is not the balance, it is whether you have an account being funded at all. Starting one is the highest-leverage move.
Conditional medians
These numbers describe savers, not everyone.
Because the median counts only account-holders, the population-wide picture is worse. If you have any retirement account at all, you are already ahead of roughly 40 to 50% of your age group who hold none.
Balances are not the whole story
Social Security and pensions are excluded here.
This figure is dedicated retirement-account balances only. It excludes defined-benefit pensions and Social Security, which together replace a meaningful share of pre-retirement income for most American households. Your true retirement readiness is higher than the account balance alone.
Retirement accounts are one slice of net worth.
Your home, investments, and savings count too. See how your full net worth compares for your age.
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Next steps
Four calculators sized to the same question.
Net worth by age (US)
Your full net worth vs households in your age group.
Compare→
Upper-middle class?
Type your income; see if you cross the line in your state.
Find out→
Saving rate, ranked
How much of your take-home pay you keep, versus other economies.
Compare→
Compound your next windfall
Drop in a lump sum; see what it becomes at 5%, 7% and 10% over 10, 20 and 30 years.
Run it→
Frequently asked questions
Based on the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), a household net worth of $1,920,800 places you in the top 10% in the United States. $3,795,600 reaches the top 5%, and $13,667,000 puts you in the top 1%. These thresholds include the value of primary residences, retirement accounts (401(k), IRA), and all other assets minus debts.
The median American household has a net worth of approximately $192,900 (Federal Reserve SCF, reference year 2022). Half of households hold more, half hold less. The mean is much higher — around $1,063,700 — because a small number of extremely wealthy households pull the average upward. The median rose 37% from 2019 to 2022, the largest jump since the survey began in 1983.
The U.S. mean of roughly $1,063,700 is about 5.5× the median of $192,900. This extreme gap reflects one of the most concentrated wealth distributions in the developed world: the top 1% holds roughly 30% of total household net worth. A small number of billionaires and multi-millionaires pull the average up without affecting the median, which is why the median is always the better number for describing a 'typical' American household.
A household net worth of $500,000 places you around the 70th percentile in the United States — well above the median of $192,900 but below the top 10% threshold of $1,920,800. In other words, you have more wealth than about 70% of American households, but are still below the tier commonly referred to as 'wealthy'.
Household net worth adds up the market value of all assets a household owns — primary residence, other real estate, retirement accounts (401(k), IRA, pension plans), bank and savings accounts, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, business equity, vehicles, and other assets — and subtracts all liabilities such as mortgages, student loans, credit card balances, vehicle loans, and other debt. The SCF is a comprehensive survey that captures both financial and non-financial assets.